Impact on DNA-Based Paternity Testing on Families

描述(申请人提供)：截至1999年，美国每年进行28万次DNA亲子鉴定。由于儿童抚养费执行办公室(OCSE)的补贴，这一数字正在迅速增加。这些测试是确定亲子关系的许多方法之一，目的是建立子女抚养令，但人们对其对家庭的直接影响知之甚少。一个男人从对父亲身份的不确定转变到作为孩子父亲的确定的包容或排斥的转变，可能会极大地改变父母的行为。在更多地了解获得亲子鉴定的家庭背景之前，很难将检测结果中包含的信息所引发的行为影响与混淆的背景因素分开。测试结果的外源性有多大？这项研究将列出100,000名基于DNA的亲子鉴定受试者的管理数据，这些受试者的亲子鉴定是由兰花基因筛查公司进行的。到目前为止，这家公司是美国OCSE办公室亲子鉴定服务的领先供应商。通过评估这些受试者的种族、年龄、地区、转介来源和检测结果，我们希望更好地了解OCSE亲子鉴定受试者美国人口的描述性人口统计学。为了更好地了解测试对象的社会和行为因素，我们将对马里兰州4个县的200个亲子鉴定案例中接受测试的母亲和所谓的父亲进行调查。该调查将评估每个成年人目前与儿童的接触程度、测试前对测试结果的期望以及独立的SES。测试结果数据将提供给同意的受试者。我们将提醒所有受访者对儿童结果进行纵向跟踪的可能性(由随后的R01提供资金)。如果社会因素对测试结果的差异解释很少，那么亲子鉴定信息可能会外在地改善孩子的结果。如果更好的父亲更有可能在亲子鉴定中检测出阳性，那么人们可能会对检测结果是否真的改变了父母的行为表示怀疑。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): As of 1999 there were 280,000 DNA-based paternity tests conducted annually in the US. This number is rapidly increasing both due to subsidies from the Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE). These tests are one of many ways that paternity is established for the purposes of establishing a child support order, but little is known about their direct effect on families. It is possible that a man's transition from uncertainty over paternity to certain inclusion or exclusion as the father of the child could dramatically alter both parents' behavior. Until more is known about the family context in which these paternity tests are obtained it will be difficult to isolate the behavioral effects triggered by the information contained in the test results from confounding background factors. How exogenous are the test results? This study will tabulate administrative data on 100,000 DNA-based paternity test subjects whose tests are performed by Orchid Gene Screen Inc. This company is by far, the leading vendor of paternity testing services to OCSE offices throughout the U.S. By assessing the race, age, region, referral source, and test result of these subjects we hope to better understand the descriptive demography of the U.S. population of OCSE paternity test subjects. To better understand the social and behavioral factors of test subjects we will conduct surveys from the mothers and alleged fathers receiving testing in 200 paternity cases from 4 Maryland counties. The survey will assess current level of contact with the child, pre-test expectations of test outcome, and SES independently for each adult. Test result data will be available for consenting subjects. We will alert all respondents of the potential for longitudinal follow up of child outcomes (funded by a subsequent R01). If social factors explain little of the variation in test results, then paternity test information could exogenously improve child outcomes. If better fathers are more likely to test positive in a paternity test then one may entertain skepticism that the test results actually change parental behavior.